Amp Energy 500 Runs Today

The Chase for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series Championship is heading to the unfriendly confines of Talladega for the next race in the competition, today’s Amp Energy 500. Talladega is a fun track for the fans because it’s a smaller track where the drivers have less room to move around the track and the chances of crashing and banging on the track is absolute.

Expect the lead to change hands many times on Talladega today

Jimmie Johnson started on the pole for this race, due to qualifying for the Amp Energy 500 being rained out on Saturday morning and his closest rival for the Sprint Cup Series Championship, Mark Martin, will start next to him. In fact, due to the rules in place to set the positions for races when qualifying is rained out, the top twelve racers in the Chase started in the top twelve positions on the grid.

This will certainly make for an interesting race since this will give the top drivers in the Chase the opportunity to do a little maneuvering for points and position in the Chase. At present Jimmie Johnson leads Mark Martin by 118 points and Talladega is a tough track to win on, so I wouldn’t be surprised if both Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin finished out of the top twelve.

Keep an eye out for Brad Keselowski and Juan Montoya, who is my dark horse for this race and for the Sprint Cup Series Championship. He does have along way to come all the way back and into the lead for the Chase, but he’s been pushing hard lately and I like his attitude. Jimmie Johnson will probably be in the back of the pack once we get down to the final fifty laps or so and he’ll have to come back in order to finish good. He can still do it, anything is possible on a NASCAR track, especially Talladega, and it’s never over until the winner crosses the line. Expect Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon to also be contenders at the end of the Amp Energy 500, along with Montoya and a late charging Jimmie Johnson.

The race will probably come down to the start off the last restart as it does many times on a NASCAR track, but with the way Talladega is as a track, I expect over thirty drivers to be on the lead lap with twenty laps to go. Lots of lead changes should occur near the end of the race and this will make for some entertaining racing and this is what we all show up for.

“Image: Zuma Press”